When entering the castle, he was guided to the reception room as before. When the door engraved with the royal crest of Sigrasal opened, Netepel smiled seeing the woman waiting for him inside. It was an even brighter smile as he saw King Aglante sitting beside her.

“Ophelia.”

“Netepel.”

The answering voice was cold. Netepel regretted that Ophelia did not soften towards his appearance like others did. People were generally generous about his looks. Not limited to gender, even Prince Brinwell had been favorable to him, hadn’t he?

But what could be done about that being Ophelia’s nature. If it were someone else, he would have doubted if their eyes were properly attached, but if it was Ophelia, Netepel could fully understand. It was because Ophelia was special for having points different from others, and that’s why he wanted to possess her.

Without dropping his smiling face, Netepel extended his hand to the cold woman.

“Have you been well?”

“It would be better if you withdrew your hand.”

It looked quite lofty to just stare with those bright blue eyes as if a single handshake was difficult, but elegance shown anywhere but in his arms was only unpleasant. As he withdrew his hand as requested, Netepel remarked.

“You sent back the servants for not offering congratulations, yet you won’t even shake hands.”

“Either way is equally impolite.”

And Ophelia deliberately picked up the teacup with her left hand that had been resting on her knee. Netepel twisted his lips upon discovering the Sigrasal royal wedding ring on her finger.

Ophelia had returned the ring he had sent her as it was. It was something that happened on the day she had rejected him, so Netepel vividly remembered the shame he felt that day.

And at that time, Ophelia’s hand had no wedding ring. While it might be understandable for an ordinary household, royalty with many things to wear on their fingers rarely wore wedding rings except at official events. At official occasions, since the fourth finger was pledged, they had to show that there was a jewel to wear in that place even on other days.

The fact that she deliberately wore such a wedding ring now meant she wanted him to see it.

It didn’t feel good at all to see her taking the side of a man not even a year old, abandoning him whom she had been with for nearly twenty years.

However, showing his feelings in this situation would only be the action of an amateur. Netepel asked in a gentle voice.

“Are you still angry with me?”

Hearing the man’s question, Ophelia thought. Should this be called anger?

Could the emotion she was feeling now be contained in such a shallow word?

Anger was at least something that could be resolved with a few words and time.

Right now, Ophelia didn’t want to give Netepel such an opportunity. She wanted to strangle him, or hang him on the gallows, or crush him under a carriage, but she didn’t want to try to understand him to mitigate these feelings of hers.

So this is not anger. Having concluded this, she answered.

“No.”

“Your expression doesn’t look good.”

It was understandable since she wasn’t particularly good at managing her expressions.

When she remained silent without responding, Netepel spoke again.

“I’d like to talk just the two of us.”

“About the debt?”

“The amount is large.”

And Netepel leaned back and tilted his head slightly. It was a typical posture shown by people who thought they were in a superior position.

He added.

“Don’t misunderstand, I want to be considerate of you.”

“Unsolicited consideration is no different from rudeness.”

“Alright, if that’s really your wish… Have you checked the amount?”

“I’ve read through it roughly.”

Although most of the documents in Leden Palace had been destroyed, the ledger Mahanas had kept in a secret space remained. The debt documents he had managed together were also the same.

“But I think there might be an omitted amount.”

“That’s right. How did you know?”

Well, it’s because she had done similar things herself.

Before time turned back, Ophelia had played quite a bit with money. The main targets were Mahanas, but his close associates and nobles who had sided with Mahanas in the past and oppressed the Rakmata family also became targets.

Every time she lent them money and wrote documents, Ophelia always omitted a portion. Then, when it came time for them to repay, she presented documents with the normal amount written. It was possible because she always made two copies of the IOU and kept one herself.

People who found out they had more to repay than expected were surprised. Those who had come to repay by scraping together their assets because they could no longer bear the interest rate she called were also desperate.

But they couldn’t argue. The IOU she had showed no signs of forgery, and above all, it had their own seal on it.

It was something she only did when she wanted to torment a target maliciously, so rather than thinking Netepel would do such a thing, she was just testing the waters.

It seemed her friend belonged to a lower class of human than she had thought.

When she didn’t respond, Netepel shrugged and handed over a sheet of paper.

“I heard some of the documents on the prince’s side were lost. Fortunately, I have the original, so there won’t be any problems.”

Taking the paper he handed over, Ophelia checked the amount written there. It was about ten times the amount that had been notified to her.

Even so, it was something she could handle alone with plenty left over.

Anyway, she was now in the wealthiest state of her life. Perhaps thinking she wouldn’t leave readily if she had a lot, Idren kept adding to her private assets.

He did so even though he knew that in her past life, when she had about as much money, she had taken her own life without hesitation.

While she was momentarily lost in thought, Netepel asked.

“Is the amount too large?”

“Unlike the dead prince, not particularly for me.”

According to plan, Ophelia was going to tell the man to discuss the remaining matters with Dahel. She was busy with something else she had to prepare separately for Netepel.

It was then that Idren, sitting beside her, tilted his head.

“May I take a look?”

Since it wasn’t the first time he had shown interest in her conversation with Netepel, Ophelia held out the paper so he could see.

“It’s not that large. I’ll pay this much.”

“It’s nice of you to show goodwill, but there’s no need for the King to go that far…”

“It’s fine. I’ve been doing some things to upset my wife lately, so I needed a chance to make up for it.”

And before the man could say anything, the King handed the document back to him. Netepel saw the man smiling with cold eyes.

“You can discuss the rest with my financial advisor. They will take care of the notarization as well, so don’t worry. Is there anything else to say?”

Given the situation of coming to collect a debt, he should have gotten up from his seat if the matter was resolved, but Netepel couldn’t rise from his seat.

This wasn’t the situation he had anticipated. It should have been Ophelia repaying Mahanas’s debt.

Not the King of Aglante.

But there was no procedural issue to object to.

If he had a little more time, he could come up with something to say. Netepel stared at Ophelia, who was sitting silently.

“We haven’t heard Ophelia’s answer yet.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

And she spoke in a voice colder than any words he had heard before.

“The debt you want repaid was incurred without my consent, wasn’t it?”

“…If you say it like that.”

It seemed the King of Aglante was kinder to his wife than he had anticipated.

Realizing that staying any longer would only result in losses, Netepel said.

“Then I’ll take my leave now.”

“If you tell the knight at the door, he will guide you to my financial advisor.”

To those words deliberately meant to scrape at his insides, the 2nd Prince of Egelbamot reacted openly. Idren raised the corner of his mouth as he saw the man’s red eyes staring intently at him.

“Thank you for your consideration.”

As soon as the uninvited guest disappeared, Ophelia first retracted what she had said.

“I heard how much he demanded from Salode, so fill it from my private funds.”

Idren answered the woman who kept throwing back whatever he tried to do for her.

“There’s no need for that.”

“Just as there’s no need for you to repay Mahanas’s debt.”

“I already gave the reason for that earlier.”

The words he had said to the 2nd Prince about needing to score points with Ophelia were not empty talk. He added.

“I did it because I wanted to look good to you.”

And he tilted his head towards Ophelia. She allowed him to kiss her on the cheek.

“No matter how much I pay, most of it will come back anyway. Prince Masaran, who has to pay war reparations, will hold out his hand.”